The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is in the Kegalla District. The road that leads to the orphanage is about two kilo meters from Kegalla town, on the Kandy road.It was started in 1975. There are baby and adult elephants int he orphanage. They are all rescued elephants. Farmers shoot at elephants when they come to their villages. Sometimes they throw fire brands to scare them away. Some elephants fall into pits, wells and water-holes, when they come in search of water, in the dry season. Some injured elephants fall on the way. They cannot get up because of pain, hunger and thirst. Such elephants are rescued and brought to the orphanage.
Every morning the elephants walk in a line to Maha Oya for bathing, like school children going for the morning assembly. They love to be in water for a long time. They look like rocks when they lie in the water. The mahouts scrub, brush and rub their bodies with coconut hucks. The playful little ones spary and splash water on each other.
The baby elephants below one year are the infants. Those between 1 year and 5 years are calves. The male adults bulls and the female adults are cows.
An infant drinks 5 liters of milk at a time. They are bottle fed five times a day. They adults eat fodder, coconut leaves, jak leaves kitul trunks. You can spend hours and hours watching them.
